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Is the letter "d" sometimes pronounced like a glottal stop? For example is the letter "d" in the word "wouldn't" pronounced like a glottal stop?

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  • Only accent I can think of is Valley Girl, more with didn’t than wouldn’t though.
    – KarlG
    Commented Apr 12, 2019 at 17:38
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    Sounds plausible in London ("Cockney") and Glasgow accents.
    – user323578
    Commented Apr 12, 2019 at 17:43

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Some English dialects have T-glottalization, in some cases voiceless p is glottalized and also some linguists talk about k-glottalization (but it's uncommon).

To my knowledge nobody claims that voiced "d" sound is ever glottalized in English. Strictly speaking you've asked about letter, not sound - in that case, well, you need to things: 1) this particular d is actually pronounced voiceless 2) it's glottalized.

Speaking of specifically "wouldn't" - I never read about this word being D-glottalized. In fact, /d/ in American dialects is indeed quite often indistinguishable from /t/ - both medial t and d both sound as [ɾ] (alveolar flap), which shouldn't be confused with glottal stop. Also, as it said in the link provided, before a syllabic /n̩/ t become glottalized while d never does.

Also this excellent question (and even more excellent answers provided) might give you some food for thoughts.

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  • Actually, before /n/, many dialects of American English glottalize /t/ (as in kitten [ˈkɪʔn]) but not /d/ (as in wooden [ˈwʊdn]). So before /n/, they're usually distinguishable. See this question.
    – Peter Shor
    Commented Jul 1, 2019 at 14:10
  • @PeterShor my bad - I was rushing with an answer and just screwed up last two sentences - of course you are right, I've provided fixed answer.
    – shabunc
    Commented Jul 1, 2019 at 14:16

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